


Descendants of Twilight

by Link-Trashart (FanFiction_Artist_Prototype)



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Father-Son Relationship, Give Link a Good Dad 2K21, Minor Character Death, No Spoilers, Original Character(s), Pre-Calamity Ganon, Twilight Princess references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFiction_Artist_Prototype/pseuds/Link-Trashart
Summary: Rusl Lupus loves his children, but Hylia.... Hylia he wishes he never became a knight.
Relationships: Link & Link's Father (Legend of Zelda), Link's Father & King Roham
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	Descendants of Twilight

Rusl, seventh of that name and proud to bare the name of the man who had raised his ancestor the hero of Twilight, had despaired when his baby boy was born with a triangular birthmark on the bottom of his left foot. 

It was common knowledge what a triangular birthmark meant, especially in a family descended from a hero and a family who had long since left their mark as a supplier for some of the finest guards the Royal guard had ever seen. And usually the birthmark would be on the back of the hand, but there were no other little boys born after Princess Zelda (born with the birthmark on the back of her right hand) with a triangular birthmark and so no matter the marks placement Rusl knew what it meant.

His son was to be the hero of Hyrule and… and whilst Rusl was scared, terrified even of what his boy would go through he couldn’t help but be so proud. His little Link took to a sword with grace and it was a good thing the five year old was not allowed in the tavern for surely his ears would burn so hot they’d fall off if he’d heard how his father proclaimed for the whole world to hear that his son could hold a sword younger than anyone else, that despite tripping into the pond besides the house after getting distracted by a butterfly it was his sons most impressive moment and he was ever so proud of him.

Because Rusl was a knight, and his son was the suspected fated hero but his son was also Link and Link could hold a sword younger than anyone else but he also dropped his sword many times in order to grab his little sister and spin her around and tickle her as little Ariel demanded to learn with her big brother and Father because she wanted to be a knight as well. And Link would smile, bigger than he ever usually allowed away from the walls of the stables, and tell his sister that if she let him practice he’d train her himself and then they’d both be able to be knights together.

And as Rusl watched his son grow, gain height and ability he could not help but still shed tears and cheer louder than any Father not looking to embarrass their children should cheer when his son would compete in the village festivals, because it did not matter what place Link finished, as long as Link found that he could stand from any tumble and continue onward.

Perhaps that was because Rusl didn’t care for their legacy, he was the by-product of a legacy their ancestor had never intended to create and legacies did not need to breed more legacies. Link could just be Link, there was no need for Link to be ‘Link the prospective hero’ or ‘Link the fated hero’, he only ever needed to be himself. And that is why Rusl nearly had a heart attack when he received a letter from his wife when he was away in central Hyrule that their son had gone missing, all that remained an old tattered wolf fur that Rusl had thought to be lost generations ago, a crystal broach left in place of their son.

Immediately he’d known what that meant, and it had brought blood to his mouth as he bit his tongue to not scream. King Roham had placed the knights under strict order to report any potential sightings of the new hero to the King’s personal guard - so that the hero could be tucked away and trained to the King’s liking; despite that being the opposite of how the goddesses wanted their champions to face their foes.

The Heroes were at their strongest when they were free, when they were themselves.

But with rumours that Calamity Ganon was awakening… Rusl was an incredibly selfish man, he understood that. But the night he received and read the letter from his wife he walked to the bonfire and before his squadron burnt the letter from his wife. 

There were questions, of course there were, for most people from Hanato had seen his son as a babe or older and had seen him without shoes at least once and most knew what the letter probably complained.

But his _pack_ never told the King. And Link Lupus remained missing until a platoon found twelve year old Link Lupus with the master sword on his back and the promises from the Great Deku tree seared into his mind.

After the ‘discovery’ Rusl found himself promoted to the King’s Guard; something he should have loved, something that should have been spectacular because most every other knight in his family had reached that position. But he hated it.

He hated it so much because it meant that he never saw Link anymore, his son was forced to train night and day, all those small mistakes that children make that would have been quietly corrected were now thrust away with harsh strikes from men that while in lesser positions than Rusl he was powerless to stop.

And by Hylia he’d tried.

For the five years his son was turned from the hero of Hyrule into a voiceless husk of his son Rusl tried, and on the day his son graduated from his training and Rusl got to hug his son again he cried.

-*-

Link Lupus is seventeen years of age when he’s able to curl his fingers into the back of his fathers shirt, burying his head into shoulders that used to carry him and his baby sister, and he can let sword calloused fingers run over his back and ground him because the world of the fated knight and the world of Link Lupus had long since conjoined and the moments where they separated and a boy became a boy and not a knight were beyond rare.

“I’m the Princess’ personal knight.”

His throat is raw, words long forbidden, and the hitch in breath against his head, the way fingers scramble before stilling and clawing into his shirt make him tense, beyond worried that perhaps Rusl Lupus has changed in the five years, and perhaps he’s changed for the worse just like Link has.

Tears hit his head and it’s shocking, and his head goes to lift but fingers run through his hair and keep him tucked under his Father’s chin as if he were a little boy again.

“Words cannot express how proud of you I am. But remember,” the laughter is wet and Link does not remember a time his Father has cried outside of Ariel’s birth and that day five years ago when he met him at the gates the Castle Town, “I will always be here to protect you. And I will be proud of you forever, all you have to do is come home alive.”

-*-

Rusl doesn’t know how the Calamity begins, there hadn’t been any kind of forewarning it was just that one moment he was riding next to King Roham as he exited Castle Town and prepared to meet the Princess after her hoped awakening at Mount Lanayru, the next Hyrule field exploded into utter hell as the sky turned blood red, spires erupted from the earth and Guardian’s turned on anything in their path.

“MOVE! MOVE MAN, WE HAVE TO KEEP THE KING ALIVE, DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!”

Rusl keeps his grasp on the King’s sleeve tight as he watches his commander be torn in half by a Guardian, from that moment on he keeps his eyes forward, whistling for Epona and forcing the King onto her back as he drowns out the screams as his fellow guardsmen fall one by one until it is only him, the King and Epona attempting to outrun spidery visions of death.

“The Calamity is upon us-”

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH ROHAM!” His jaw hurts, his teeth prick his tongue and copper swallows his senses and the ground beneath his feet seems to move beneath him ever so slightly quicker. Epona whines and he risks a look at the shocked King, a King of a dying nation, “JONAH WAS JUST RIPPED IN HALF BY A GUARDIAN THAT IS NOW ATTEMPTING TO MURDER I KNOW DAMN WELL THE CALAMITY IS UPON US!”

It’s then that he feels the heat that has been licking at his heels their entire escape attempt hit him in the back, and it is hot and heavy and it comes with beeps and whirs and he knows what that means.

And he hates the King, he hates Roham more than he hates anything else in the world but he has a duty to fulfil and if Roham survives, if Link and Zelda defeat Ganon before the world goes to hell completely then he doesn’t want his vengeful last moments to reflect badly.

He hopes that Ariel and Myra are safe at least, he hopes that his son will be safe without him. After all his boy is the hero of Hyrule and Link has so much to fight for. He’ll be okay.

So, he hits Epona’s flank hoping she’ll take the petrified King far away from the mess of his final battle and keeps his speed up, turning sharply and throwing himself at a Guardian, sword digging into it’s eye mercilessly, “HYAA!”

Rusl can swear he hears Epona’s song among the whirling of the Guardians and he focuses on that, and he focuses on his children and his wife and how he loves them so and he imagines King Roham’s face in place of every limb and eye socket he is surrounded by and he fights.

Rusl Lupus goes down fighting with the ferocity of a wolf at the twilight of the end of the world cursing the dying King of Hyrule.


End file.
